Shelia....your picture is INCREDIBLE!!! This is one of my favourite roses in my garden. I have mine planted in a cool and somewhat shady part of my rose garden (it gets anywhere from 6-8 hours of sun depending on time of year) and it does really well, better than I thought it would! I get three flushes per season (my plant is still young, only 2 years on the ground). It stays relatively healthy as well (it will get a little blackspot, but nothing major, and it keeps blooming and doesn't lose its leaves). I do have irrigation, so maybe that helps the blooms stand up to the sun (we don't get much heat here in the PNW). I wish I had a picture of the full plant! I'll post these flower pics anyway..because it's just so pretty. As you can see, there's some blackspot (these were taken in June), but this was its first year in the ground, and it seems to be getting better over time. The plants never defoliates, and the leaves look nice all season.

I sure hope Beales Roses Sent Ashdown the right rose. I have a waiting list a mile long for people wanting to buy one of my plants. This fall I even bought 10 more plants from Germany, who delivered the correct plant 2 years ago. But the plants I got looked suspiciously more thorny than the right SDAL. So I have planted them in my cutting garden an will have to wait and see until they bloom whether they are the correct one. At least I have my mother plants that I know for sure are the right plants. I propagated 30 more this fall from them and sent budwood to 3 vendors here in Europe, one of them being the dutch Nursery. Plants from my clone will be sent to Ashdown from them. I really look forward seen pictures of the Rose Ashdown has now to see if it is the right SDAL. Also would be nice to see pictures of palnts from Vintage. When your rose blooms Lori Please take pictures and post them. This way I can se what you grow (Hopefully). I must say my trust in people selling the right rose is small. After I have seen so many vendors over here selling SdDJ or Erinnerung a Brod as SDAL. I wonder how these 3 roses got so mixed up? Well sometimes the roses get mislabeled during the budding, or even mixed up. Othertimes they have the wrong rose but think they have the right and sell it under a wrong name. Like I mentioned in the other thread ,many post pictures on HMF, thinking they have the right rose (Well we bought as SDAL from a reputable vendor) they might say. But well... Stefan: I will send Hybrida and Lykkefund To Asdown when I get the import stickers. Or I will send them to Holland so they can be shipped as cuttings during the summer. One way or the other it will get there. It really is sad that we can not just send plants to each other. That would make things so much more simple. But quarantine measures is there for a reason. I sure is cautious about bring home plants with any soil back home here. What if I was responsible for introducing scales or JBs here!!!

I will certainly try to take good pictures of both mine--should they appear to be different. I went back to the Phillip Robinson article on Damask Perpetuals to read again what he said about the two versions of Rose du Roi. For those who might be curious, here is what he said: "Already mentioned is the Portland Rose from around 1770, which was important in the development of the class. From this was bred the very important but very elusive Rose du Roi of 1812. The rose currently grown in the United States under this name was, according to Léonie Bell, imported around 1954 from the Kordes Nursery in Germany by Richard Thompson, author of Old Roses for Modern Gardens. I have grown this rose for a number of years and had no reason to suspect that it was not the true variety. In the meanwhile, I came to grow Panachée de Lyon, a striped or parti-colored sport of Rose du Roi, introduced in 1895. This was presumably the last of several such sports of Rose du Roi. All were very unstable. This has also proved to be the case for the clone that I grow. Usually the blossoms are a rather bland rose pink that by a stretch of the imagination could be the “flowers salmon” of William Paul. Other times they are true to character and this same pink is interspersed with contrasting petals of a rich, smoky red. Occasionally a branch will revert completely to this dark, smoky red. Here we surely have the original Rose du Roi. Vintage Gardens has worked with this rose to obtain stable clones from which to produce plants for sale. Now there is the question of the identity of the Rose du Roi imported by Richard Thompson. Could this be Rose du Roi à Fleurs Pourpres? If so, it is not a sport of the true Rose du Roi since they differ widely in prickles, foliage, receptacle, flower form, and flower size. We do know that the rose currently distributed as Rose du Roi à Fleurs Pourpres is truly a Hybrid Perpetual, probably in some way related to Général Jacqueminot. It can also be determined that the Rose du Roi à Fleurs Pourpres that Mrs. Keays documented in her book Old Roses is not this rose imported by Mr. Thompson. In the American Rose Annual of 1932, her description of the prickles is the most readily comparable point. Her rose had prickles both large and small, while the Kordes Rose du Roi is nearly completely thornless with smooth wood. For the time being it is best to let this rose remain the Rose du Roi (of Commerce)."

Yup, everyone, black spot, and some rust. Hah, you'd be shocked to see my poor little "garden" and plants . . . . As I think I've said before, I have a tiny narrow "yard" at my building (I rent, in the city), which gets shade from our and the adjacent buildings. Most of my roses are in (too-small-now) pots, a few in the small bed. They don't get nearly enough sun most of the time; the place is damp, and everything gets black spot. I haven't seen rust until late last summer, and now I see some more of it. Most of you would probably get rid of any roses with foliage like mine -- but I'm willing to tolerate the ugly foliage in order to have at least some beautiful blooms. And, in fact, thus far, things are looking better this year, maybebecause my plants are a bit older, bigger, stronger. I have a few that looked absolutely miserable for several years and are suddenly looking really good. So I'm hopeful -- but the potential is limited. I'd love to have a real garden . . . and a lot more room . . . I've been propagating roses and have nowhere to put new baby plants, nowhere to plant some of my container roses, which I know would LOVE to stretch out in a garden bed . . . but right now, it doesn't seem possible for a lot of reasons. I love seeing your beautiful gardens and healthy roses! Still -- I'd wanted roses for so long and only began growing a few years ago -- and now I do in fact have some beautiful roses, enough to cut a few most days for my bedside or to take to work with me. I love being able to give a beautiful rose to one of my coworkers as a treat. That being said -- I'm really hoping that the improvement trend continues! Because between the black spot and then the rose slugs -- it's been pretty bad. Anyway -- Michael -- I *don't* want you to think that this rose is especially prone to black spot -- I think it's probably quite healthy under more "normal" conditions. It's just my location/conditions, and almost all my roses are like this. I'd highly recommend it. Mine came from ARFR. Mondarda -- I think it's just black spot and some rust. I don't think (praying!) that I have virus . . . . Catspat -- a shame that Dr. Jamain doesn't seem able to cure himself, as the old saying goes! Sheba